Writing effective paid search ad copy is not easy – just ask any marketer and they will agree. This article focuses on three tips to create ad copy that gains clicks and conversions.
- Create compelling, well-written content
It used to be fairly easy for businesses to make it to one of the top spots on Google SERPs by overloading ad and landing page copy with keywords – known as keyword stuffing. Today, however, users avoid these types of search results because they are full of spam and click bait. People searching online now expect useful and relevant results that answer or solve their queries or questions. Keywords are still important, but they should be incorporated in an appropriate way so as not to put off searchers as deeming your ads as irrelevant. Create ad copy that is compelling and use keywords naturally as you write.
- Focus on the reason people are searching
For searchers to want to click on your ad, your ad will need to focus on what they actually want. If they are looking for a pair of black jeans made from organic cotton, it would make little sense to focus on your black jeans that are made of polyester, as these particular people have different needs. It’s important that your landing pages also contain relevant and value-driven content that the user wants, too.
- Use ad extensions
Incorporating ad extensions into your paid search ad strategy can dramatically increase your click-through rates. Okay, Google might not choose to always show these, but when they do, they are valuable tools to increase leads. Consider callouts, sitelinks and structured snippets, which are perfect for adding more keywords and phrases and links to your paid search ads. Callout extensions enable you to add keywords into your ad in a natural way, with copy usually structured in a bulleted list. Sitelink extensions provide additional information and links to pages that people might want to visit. And structured snippets are a mix of both callouts and sitelinks – but they require a little more work in terms of getting them right.
Conclusion
Google is really useful in the way it provides plenty of data on keywords, bids and other aspects of your PPC campaigns; however, it is the role of advertisers to write the ad copy that will hopefully convert searchers. If writing copy isn’t your strong point, hire someone to do it for you. After all, your aim is to solve people’s problems not create problems by producing ad copy that is skimmed by users and avoided.